1: I’m scared of the dark!
That’s right. I’m old enough to know better, but what can I say, the dark creeps me out! When my partner's away I sleep with the hall light on, which means I don’t sleep, because…you know…you need the room to be dark to sleep. Horror movies drive me crazy-who walks around their home in the dark? Switch on the lights!
The Crossing
2: Writing was never something I imagined doing, I always wanted to act.
Ever since my first nativity aged five. All the girls wanted to play Mary, not me. Mary didn’t say anything, plus she just hid behind Joseph. I wanted to be centre stage with ALL the lines. The narrator is where it’s at folks!
3: I started writing at a really young age.
Not in the way that you’d imagine. I wasn’t writing stories, I was writing more lines for myself in the school play. Let me take you back to a seven-year-old Manjeet playing the Good Witch in The Wizard of OZ. It was the day of the performance and I’d decided the night before that I didn’t have quite enough stage time and or lines. So, I wrote myself a few more. The puzzled look on my teachers faces…I still see it so clearly.
4: I only started writing out of necessity really.
There’s a theme here…I started writing seriously about six years ago. I was fed up with the parts I was being cast in, so figured I’d write something for myself! So, I wrote a play called ‘Flying Solo’ about a woman who trains for and runs a marathon to help overcome grief. It did really well and toured the UK for about 18 months.
5: ‘Run, Rebel’ was inspired by ‘Flying Solo.’
There’s a scene in Flying Solo where the protagonist has a flash back to her younger self and she remembers how much she loved running as a teenager and how much it helped her emotionally. That two-minute scene inspired the character that I would then go on to write in Run, Rebel.
6: I procrastinate a lot!
And I mean a lot! An idea usually percolates for a minimum of two years before I actually start writing it. I used to think I was lazy but now I realise it is actually part of my process. I started thinking about The Crossing back in 2015 and didn’t start writing it until 2019.
7: I learnt how to swim when I was 28.
I’d always dreamt of swimming in the sea but was too afraid. Now, thanks to adult swimming lessons you can’t get me out of it! I swim throughout the year and the difference it has made to my mental health has been amazing. I took part in my first open water event in 2019, one mile around the serpentine. Even as I was doing it, I couldn’t quite believe it. I was thinking ‘but a few years ago you couldn’t even swim! Now look at you!’